TWENTY
LIV
Three Months Later
“The thing about witches is that there’re so many colors in the world. What’s so great about black? Black candles, black clothes, black nail polish… black, black, black! How about you try summoning spirits with a nice pink candle? Might attract a less sour disposition!”
I snorted into my rum and Coke at my colleague’s animated rant across the table from me. The four of us—me, Skye, Raven, and our boss, Dennis—had captured a booth in one of the more popular alternative bars for our delayed annual “company party.” It was supposed to have been on Halloween, but working in a popular New Age shop meant October had been too busy.
Instead, Dennis had taken his three employees out the first Friday of November, and we were definitely on our way to becoming well and truly sloshed—which was typically when the bitching about our somewhat eccentric clientele began. I’d only been with Dark Dreams for about four months, but it was my favorite job by far, in large part due to my colleagues. They were the closest thing I’d had to friends in a very long time.
“Aw, come on, Skye—if it wasn’t for moody teenagers and their love of all things black, Dennis wouldn’t have been able to mark up the last shipment of altar cloth, and then we’d have had to pay for our own drinks tonight. We’re practically drinking the tears of rebellious teenagers.” I grinned at the blonde. “Very thematic.”
She stuck her tongue out at me before downing the last of her vodka-Redbull. “I don’t remember you being this cheerful about it when he had us drape the entire window display in the stuff. Go on—why don’t you tell Dennis how his Samhain display wrecked your day?”
I sighed dramatically and began my—if I may say so myself—hilarious parody of the customer who’d come by the shop looking like she’d stepped straight out of a Harry Potter novel, claiming the altar cloth spread decoratively across the window display ruined her ability to see the future from her apartment a couple of floors up.
It was only when Skye and Raven both uttered a weird sort of whimper—some five minutes of animated storytelling later—that I realized I’d lost two thirds of my captive audience. They were both staring at something—or, judging by the glazed look on both women, someone—behind me and Dennis.
“That’s just great. Way to make a girl feel important,” I huffed as I turned around to check out what’d made their ovaries start tangoing on the table. “What are you—?”
My irritated question died in a surprised croak of recognition as I spotted the object of their attention.
Blazing blue eyes met mine as the young man who’d just entered the bar looked up. His dark brown hair was tousled from the cold November weather, and his gray woolen coat did nothing to hide the wide set of his shoulders or trim waistline.
Soft lips, dark eyebrows, and high cheekbones completed his perfect physique—this time without so much as a speck of dirt to hide how drop-dead gorgeous he was. Pun intended.
“Warin!” My face cracked into a huge smile at the sight of the vampire I’d met over the summer.
Perhaps if I hadn’t been two hairs past tipsy, I would have remembered the many disturbing s*x dreams I’d had of him since we parted ways. Instead I scrambled up from the booth to throw myself across the bar and around his neck as if he was my long-lost brother. Sadly for me, it was only when I collided with his solid chest that a vivid memory of waking up with a soaked pillow between my legs the day after we’d said goodbye came back in ultra-sharp high-definition.
“I, uh… hey!” I fought back a hefty blush and detached myself from my one-sided hug—he’d stopped dead the moment my arms went around his neck—and gave him what I hoped was a slightly less insane smile. “I did not expect to see you again—especially not here, of all places.” I looked at the drunk, black-clad bar patrons with a raised eyebrow.
“No?” he asked, and even though his velvety voice was soft, it carried easily over the music and loud chatter.
“Well, I didn’t exactly take you for the type to trawl bars for—” I was about to say “women,” but then realized what, exactly, a vampire was likely looking for in a crowded bar filled with drunk humans.
Sex probably wasn’t it.
“Uh,” I said, smart as ever. “Company.”
The corner of his full lips curled up in the faintest echo of a smile at my lame ending.
“So… you pub-crawl, huh?” I said, looking around at the drunk people, arms crossed. I caught Raven and Skye making wild gestures of encouragement out the corner of my eye and hurriedly refocused on Warin.
Warin’s lips hiked up a bit higher. “I wouldn’t go that far. And yourself? Are you here with friends?”
It was such a normal question to ask, it took me a moment to remember my already lacking social etiquette. “Oh, yes. Work night out. You should join us.”
His gaze flickered over my shoulder to where I’d left my colleagues. “I don’t wish to interrupt your night.”
“Nonsense, you won’t.” I flashed him a happy smile, feeling a lot less awkward now that I was no longer plastered across his chest. “Besides, Skye and Raven are dying to meet you. Just don’t eat any of them. Even though they’d probably let you.” I grabbed his arm and began to pull him toward our table.
“Guys, this is Warin—Warin, this is Skye, Dennis and Raven,” I said as we arrived at the booth. I let go of Warin’s arm to let him slide in next to Dennis, but I needn’t have bothered.
“Oh, wow, it’s so good to meet one of Liv’s friends!” Skye chirped as she shot out of her seat and pulled the vampire into a hug, one that had her ample chest smooshed up against him tight enough for her b*a to nearly lose its grip on her breasts. Warin froze at the unexpected touch, every muscle in his body tensing even harder than when I’d force-hugged him, but Skye didn’t seem to notice.
“Come, sit!” she said, beaming smile still in place. She practically pushed him into the bench next to Raven and hurriedly scooted in after, effectively trapping him between them both.
Raven mouthed an enthusiastic “thank you” at me before she focused her attention on the newcomer too. Her top wasn’t as low cut as Skye’s, but when she purred, “Yes, what a pleasure,” at the vampire, an impressive amount of her t**s suddenly appeared right underneath his nose.
I rolled my eyes so hard they nearly got lost in the back of my skull. “Smooth, girls.”
Dennis managed a decent attempt at disguising his laugh in his pint of beer.
“So, Warin… How do you know Liv?” he asked once he’d downed a swig. “You one of her friends from back in Denver?”
“No, we only met recently,” I quickly stepped in. I hadn’t told any of them about my little k********g adventure, partly because it seemed somehow inappropriate to answer, “So, what did you do on your day off?” with “Was kidnapped and stabbed by fanatics, but oh, I made a vampire friend!”—and partly because I wasn’t exactly keen on getting linked back to the two dead men Warin had left behind when we made our escape. “We met at, uh, a book club a little while ago.”
“Oh, you like to read? Who’s your favorite author?” Raven lit up, and I recalled her grumbling about how hard it was to find a well-read man the last time she came into work after a disappointing date.
“I’ve enjoyed many over the years. Kierkegaard is always thought-provoking, but I often find myself revisiting Dante,” Warin said, as if throwing that level of literary references on the table was no big deal. “Do you have favorite authors?” He directed the question to the table at large, but Raven was not about to let his attention waver. She looked like Christmas had come early as she casually let a finger travel up the back of Warin’s hand to regain his focus.
It didn’t surprise me when Warin froze at the uninvited touch this time—but Raven’s wide eyes as she quickly snapped her finger away did. Huh.
I shrugged it off, assuming she was just sober enough to catch social cues somewhat better than both Skye and I.
“What about favorite movies?” I asked, not feeling a need to divulge how much further down the social capital ladder my taste in books hung out.
“Movies? Didn’t you two meet at a book club? I’d have thought you’d be all about discussing Tolstoy and Dostoevsky,” Dennis teased.
I narrowed my eyes at him, all too aware he’d caught me hanging out in the back room with a wide variety of smutty romance novels over the months I’d worked for him, and a distinct lack of Russian philosophers. But two could play this game. “Sure, who wouldn’t be—especially five rum and Cokes in. Tell me, Dennis, darling, if you were stranded on a desert island, which highbrow book would you pick over a cell phone with an Internet connection?”
My boss laughed and held up both hands in defeat. “All right, point well made. So, movies, then?”
For the next couple of hours, Warin fielded less-than-subtle flirting from Skye like a pro, intermixed with general banter and drunken human humor. But I guess he was a pro—at blending in with humans, that is. When he hadn’t been locked up and starved for goddess knew how long, at least.
I was pretty amazed with his transformation from when I’d first met him—especially when he not so much as glanced at Skye’s cleavage or neck. I recalled the darkness in his eyes when he’d stared at my bleeding collarbone and suppressed a shudder. Vampires were clearly better company when they’d been fed.
Skye, however, was less than impressed with his lack of interest in her booby offerings. When Warin ignored her batting eyelashes for probably the tenth time since his arrival at our booth, she’d clearly had enough of playing it subtle and deemed it time for a more direct approach. I was pretty sure, judging from Warin’s involuntary jerk, that when she reached under the table, she wasn’t grabbing at his leg.
“How about we all take it to a nightclub? I want to dance! Don’t you feel like a bit of grinding, Warin?” She shot the vampire at flirtatious smile.
“Actually, I’m beat,” I said, stretching for emphasis. “I should head on home. Warin, would you walk me, please? You never know what lurks out there.” I winked at the vampire and got a soft chuckle in return.
“Of course.” He very firmly moved Skye’s hand—which was, indeed, placed on his crotch, I noted as I got to my feet—and made to stand up.
“See you later, guys,” I said as Skye blew a raspberry at me behind Warin’s back.
We exited the bar and weaved our way past clusters of drunk people on the pavement. I led the vampire about a block away before I turned to him with a teasing smile.
“All right, the girls aren’t following, so you should be safe. You don’t actually have to walk me all the way home—it’s pretty far.”
“I would nevertheless like to,” he said
“Okay, then, but don’t complain if you get tired,” I teased as we began walking.
His hoarse laughter made my already present smile bigger. There was something about the sound of his mild amusement that warmed me from the inside out, almost as effectively as the several rum and Cokes I presently had in my system.
“You’ve seen firsthand how much stronger vampires are, and yet you worry a walk will make me tired? You are a funny human.”
I snorted. “Sorry, didn’t mean to put your entire race in a bad light with my concern for your comfort.
“Hardly. I find you rather intriguing.”
The way he said it so absolutely casually, as if it was a perfectly normal thing to say to a girl, made my already alcohol-fueled hormones spike.
Way too young, Liv. And a vampire, I mentally scolded my ovaries. Not that he seemed to be really flirting. He was casually strolling next to me with both hands in the pockets of his wool coat without so much as looking at me.
Yeah, I so wasn’t going there. A shudder rose up through my spine at the thought of mixing the kind of bedroom antics vampires were infamous for with what my lady bits currently seemed focused on. I was way too vanilla to ever want to try out blood play, that’s for damn sure.
“Are you cold?” my vampire companion asked at my shiver.
“Yeah,” I said. It was f*****g freezing, and I hadn’t wrapped up as thoroughly as I should have when I got dressed for the night out. Foolishly, I’d chosen vanity over a healthy respect for Chicago’s November temperatures once the sun set.
He didn’t so much as stop as he swiftly unbuttoned his coat and draped it over my shoulders.
“Oh. You don’t have to—I don’t want you to get cold...” My voice died when he shot me an incredulous look, eyebrow raised. “Yeah, okay… vampires don’t feel the cold, do they?”
“No,” he said, an amused twitch to his lips at my belated light bulb-moment.
“Well… thank you,” I said, clutching it closer around me. The same scent—of crisp night air and a hint of earthy notes—as I’d noticed when he’d lent me his shirt months earlier wrapped around me. Flashes of some of the more X-rated dreams I’d been plagued with after we parted helpfully arrived in the forefront of my mind, making my face heat up. Apparently, the smell of him was enough to reactivate whatever had triggered them to begin with.
“Warin…. You know, when you, ah, fed me your blood…?” I asked, doing my best to keep my tone neutral.
“Hmm?”
“Are there… sometimes, uh, side-effects?”
The way he stole a glance at me from below his dark eyelashes made me suspect he was fully aware of what I was referring to.
“There can be some, yes. Which ones depends on the donor and receivers,” he non-answered. “Are you still feeling any… effects?”
I shook my head with vigor, silently thanking the goddess I hadn’t run into him while the dreams were still at their height. “Nope, damn shame too.”
His eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh?”
I gave him a teasing smile. “Yeah, my skin was flawless for weeks. You have no idea how many girls would kill for never having to reach for their foundation again.”
Warin chuckled at my theatrics.
“Seriously, you should bottle that stuff. You’d make a killing in the beauty industry.” I wasn’t serious at all.
However, Warin’s good-humored smile withered, dark severity taking its place as he grabbed my shoulder lightly, making me stop. “Liv, you can never tell anyone about taking vampire blood, or its effects. Do you understand? Never.”
“Yeah, just joking.” I gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not about to repay you for saving my life with running my mouth about the healing properties of your blood. Don’t wanna think about what the pharmaceutical industry would do with that information.”
“There’ve been rumors circulating since the Night of Revelations. I am not worried about some foolish human attempting to extract blood from a vampire—but if an undead hears you speaking of such matters, they will end your life.”
“Oh.” I blinked, some of my pleasant buzz disappearing in the face of his seriousness. “Okay, got it. Any other warnings you wanna share? Or has the government got it covered with their anti-vamp campaigns?”
Warin snorted derisively. “They know very little of value.” He released my shoulder and began walking again. I fell in beside him.
“So? Do you have any good tips? Just in case the next vampire I get locked in a cage with isn’t as friendly?”
He chuckled mirthlessly. “I’ve not seen many humans capable of coming out on top from an encounter with a vampire. But we do have some vulnerabilities.”
“Like silver?” I asked, thinking back to the thin chain the fanatics had tied Warin with. “As far as I know, that’s never been in any of the campaigns. I can’t believe those lunatics were better prepared than the Nightwalker Department. Will wearing a silver necklace protect me?”
“No. Nothing will protect you from a vampire, Liv. Your best defense is to avoid us at all costs.”
“Says the vampire currently walking me home in the middle of the night,” I said with a cheeky grin. “Just what any girl wants to hear.”
His laugh sounded more genuine this time. “You’re amusing when you’re intoxicated.”
“Psh.” Eloquent as always. “What about you? Do vampires not get drunk? I saw you finish several glasses.”
“You saw nothing but a well-practiced trick,” he said with a casual shrug. “We can’t ingest alcohol or other food substances. Most of my kind learn sleight of hand if they wish to blend in with humans.”
“Huh,” I said, feeling extra bad that he’d had to sit through getting mauled by my female colleagues while stone-cold sober. “Guess that’s handy—don’t know many other bars that’d let a kid drink.”
“Excuse me?”
I grimaced. “Sorry, I mean ‘young men under twenty-one.’” A moment’s clarity made me stop and squint at him. “Wait…” I mentally facepalmed. He was a goddamn vampire. Well-f*****g-done, Liv. I wanted to excuse my idiocy with how drunk I was, but the truth was that I’d assumed he was very young since we met.
“You’re older than you look.”
His sculpted lips quivered once. “I am.”
I blew a raspberry, displacing my bangs with the gust of air before I resumed walking so I didn’t have to see the gleam of amusement over my idiocy in his blue gaze. “Well, don’t I feel like a tit. In my defense, it’s really hard to relate to. Do you just… freeze in time? Face-wise, I mean?”
“Something like that.” He was smirking, but at least he wasn’t rubbing my nose in it. “We have another way of estimating age than by appearances.”
“Length of fangs?” I suggested with a grin.
His laughter rumbled in the cool air around us. “Charisma.”
“Hmm…” I turned my head to look at him through narrowed eyes, trying to sense anything about his charisma that would help me put an age on him. “Thirty… two?”
“No.”
I looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to reveal the real number.
“C’mon, how old are you?” I finally moaned when he failed to bite.
A downright wicked smirk spread across his lips. “Older than you, little one.”
I made a crude noise, which brought back his laughter. “And how old am I, then, oh wise one?”
“Twenty-seven,” he said without missing a beat.
Huh. “That’s cheating, you know.”
“Would you like me to guess again with a blindfold over my eyes this time?”
He was mocking me. The infuriatingly smug vampire by my side was full-on mocking me for my lack of age-guessing superpowers.
“Yeah, well, I can drink alcohol. And eat chocolate ice cream, so there,” I huffed.
Warin crinkled his nose as if that wasn’t something to envy. Psh!
“I’d die without Ben & Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie—it’s nothing to turn your nose up at,” I proclaimed with a dramatic flourish of my hand.
His blue eyes sparkled mischievously. “I’m already dead.”
“I’m really not sure that argument can win this discussion,” I said, voice tart.
Warin chuckled. “You truly are a strange human, aren’t you?”
“How rude,” I hummed. “You know, you told me the same thing when I was locked up in a cage and certain you’d eat me too. It’s not saying anything great about your character, you know.”
“That’s true.” He sent me a gentle smile.
Something down low in my abdomen melted in response.
“Warin…?”
“Liv?”
“Are you really older than me?”
“Is it important?” He sounded infuriatingly unconcerned.
Only if I don’t stop having perverted thoughts about you.
Which I was. As much as I wanted to give in to my booze-addled hormones, I so wasn’t going there. And who’s to even say he was interested anyway? He hadn’t so much as glanced at Skye’s or Raven’s cleavage, and I didn’t have nearly as much to offer in that department.
Maybe he was gay.
The silence stretched between us as we walked side by side along the pavement. The streets became quieter and quieter as we left Chicago’s busier areas, only the odd car passing us by. With anyone else I’d known as briefly as I had Warin, I would have felt compelled to fill the silence with smalltalk, but not with him. It was a comfortable silence, the kind I’d always imagined you could only get with friends you’d known for years.
He was the one to break it some minutes later.
“Were you raised in Denver? Your friends mentioned it.”
“Yes. Got out of there as soon as I could, though.”
He must have caught on that I didn’t want to talk about my hometown, because he changed the subject without prying further. “Have you been in Chicago long?”
“No, just about four months. I move a lot. You?”
“I’ve been here a while.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it,” I noted. “Do vampires not get to travel much?”
“Some do. I have… obligations that keep me here.”
“Secret vampire business?” I guessed from his cagey answer.
He chuckled. “You could call it that.”
I sighed as as I came to a stop, looking up toward the complex where my rental condo was located. It was a two-hour walk from the bar by Dark Dreams, but it felt like it’d only been twenty minutes.
Warin stopped too, eying the building behind me. “This is your home?”
“Yes. Well, the condo over there.” I nodded toward the ground floor apartment furthest to the left of the building. I bit my lip as I looked at the vampire in front of me, and realized I didn’t want it to be the last time I saw him.
“Will you model for me?” I blurted.
“Pardon?” His eyebrows raised half an inch.
“I want to draw you. Your portrait,” I hastily explained, not wanting him to think I was a complete p*****t. “Nothing, uh, nude or anything.”
He considered me for a moment. “Could we continue talking while you did this?”
I lit up, warmth blooming in my stomach that he’d apparently also enjoyed our chat on the walk back. “Yes, of course. As long as you sit somewhat still. Uh… when do you have time?”
His eyebrows furrowed as he pulled out a smartphone from his pocket and tapped on the display a few times. “I have a couple hours free after sundown on Monday. How long would you need for this drawing?”
“Oh, we can stop and pick up as many times as needed,” I beamed. My answer was purposely noncommittal—I was planning on getting as much pencil time out of his face as possible. And as many facts about vampires as I could too.
“I will stop by after sunset on Monday,” he confirmed.
I nodded and took his coat off, handing it back to him. “Thanks for walking me home.”
“It is not safe for a human to walk the streets alone at night,” he said. “You should always remember this.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes at him as I turned toward my door. “No walking home alone, no getting between vampires and stakes. For someone who’s supposed to be part of what goes bump in the night, you’re pretty tightly laced, Warin.”
The vampire’s chuckle followed me as I walked into my apartment building.
I saw him through the window in my living room before I turned the light on, waiting.
My front door slammed shut behind me, the noise making me jolt—I hadn’t meant to kick it closed with as much force as my drunken foot had apparently managed—and when I looked back out on the street, Warin was gone.
Such a gentleman.